Stress levels

We went to visit Conlon today and the news was good, but less than celebratory.

The good news: His numbers are perfect.

The so-so news: The bone marrow "looks like it's in recovery," which means he's still recovering and maybe the biopsy was premature. Conlon wants another one in six weeks. What they see looks good, but his marrow hasn't settled down from all the chemo yet. Most of the cells are very young and the truth is not out there at the moment.

The scary news: If he goes into "2nd remission leukemia," which I think is a relapse that goes back into remission (really not sure what that means), they'd be talking bone marrow transplant possibilities. In any case, there would be no more chemo, even if he relapses. Conlon said more chemo would not help. The bone marrow option would only happen if the leukemia comes back, but they want Vlad to be ready if that happens. It's standard procedure.

Sidenote: Conlon said bone marrow transplants are controversial at the moment; with some hemotologists saying they pose too high a risk for leukemia patients. There's a 10% mortality rate for b.m. transplants, which I guess may be higher than the leukemia it's trying to cure. Conlon didn't say which way he goes, but I think he wants to keep all the doors open, which is the way to go, to my mind.

Maintenance: He'll need to go in to see Conlon every six weeks for at least a year. He also needs to get set up with the bone marrow people, be evaluated and, if it gets that far, matched. The only blood-family member he has in the U.S. is Alex, and maybe they'd test relatives first, I'm not sure. Conlon's office will send paperwork to bone marrow people, either at MDAnderson or Methodist, depending on insurance.

Vlad is reeling. It's a bad day here. It's too much reality and the idea of going back for more and more tests is just testing his limits. We talked about it over lunch after the appointment. Our discussion led to our postponed joint 50th birthday plan to go to Italy in 2008. We decided we'll postpone it yet another year. We talked of little cruises maybe.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Ike is bearing down on Freeport, southwest of Houston, which is the worst possible place for us. It puts us on the "dirty side" of the hurricane, which means we get the worst of the surge, winds and rain. Locals have finally decided to freak out. It took me more than an hour to get home from Sugar Land, where Conlon is. Normally it's a 20-minute drive.

We bought our water, gasoline, ice and food ahead of time.

Now I understand I'm working the hurricane from a hotel room in Conroe starting tomorrow. Can't wait for the that trip north in I-45 with all the evacuees. And Alex just called to warn us to board up our windows. I wasn't very nice. I just really don't need one more thing to stress about. Sorry, Alex. I really don't think we need to.

I just don't have room for all this in my head.

UPDATE: I don't have to work this weekend in Conroe or anywhere.